Introduction
Despite the crucial role that migration plays in Ethiopia, Centre for Migration Studies are few and lack recognition at the national and local levels. MIDEQ’s Ethiopia team sought to change this by supporting local research capacity in partnership with Wachemo University. Doing so promotes the creation of an efficient research infrastructure to facilitate sustained local knowledge production on migration in the Ethiopian context. The university is located in Hosanna, the capital of Hadiya Administrative Zone where most Ethiopian migrants in South Africa originate.
As one of the youngest public universities in Ethiopia, with a student population of over 20,000, Wachemo established the Centre for Migration Studies and Entrepreneurship (CMSE) in 2021 with limited resources. Thus, the MIDEQ team in Ethiopia partnered with Wachemo to support the development of its Migration Research Resource Centre and small grants for empirically oriented research. In addition, they organised academic workshops and staff exchange visits between Wachemo University and renowned centres of Migration Studies in Ghana and South Africa.
